[syslinux] Problems booting from cd

Ian Leonard ian at smallworld.cx
Wed May 10 00:35:59 PDT 2006


Nazo wrote:
> On 5/4/06, Ian Leonard <ian at smallworld.cx> wrote:
>> Nazo wrote:

[ snip ]

> 
> Can you try one on a rewritable witout the translation tables (-T) and
> maybe even without the Rock-Ridge (just for testing)?  That's about
> the only difference I see.  I do think that --no-emul-boot and
> --boot-load-size 4 are probably just redundancies, but, with something
> so sensitive relying on standards that BIOS manufacturers will never
> 100% support I would imagine that you should do all you can to help,
> and including those probably wouldn't be a bad idea.  By the way,
> which isolinux are you using?  I'm wondering if you should try using
> the other one whichever it is (eg, if using debug, try standard, if
> using standard, try debug.)  In the documentation Mr. Anvin recommends
> using the debug version because it adds very little delay while having
> the obvious advantage of adding the occasional debugging information,
> so, in particular, if you're using the standard you should really try
> the debug version and see if it gives you any info that could possibly
> be useful.  Here's a suggestion.  If you have a floppy drive, place a
> non-bootable disk in it, then set your BIOS to boot the floppy drive
> before the CD-ROM.  This way you will be able to see any error
> messages or whatever that may occur before any bootloaders on your
> harddrive take over the screen since the bios will stop with some
> error message informing you the disk isn't bootable and wait for
> interaction.

I finally have a 'workaround'. This has been a nightmare and I still 
don't really have an explanation. We have three types of m/board. An old 
one (Abit), one we have been using for a few years (ITOX) and a new one 
(also an ITOX). The old and new failed to boot, the other was fine.

As suggested above I removed the -T and the -J options (did not use 
--boot-load-size, etc). I also changed to Verbatum CD-R disks. The new 
combination booted on all three m/boards.

I added the -J option again and it booted on the old Abit, the old ITOX 
but not the new ITOX.

I can live with the cd not being read on Windows, therefore I have a 
solution. However, I don't know what is really happening. My best guess 
is this:

I read, on this list, that someone had this problem if they had too many 
files on the CD. Since one of the things I had done was to add files, 
this could be a reason. However I did remove these files and rebuild the 
cd's but it still didn't work. It could be that I had some bad media or 
just made a mistake. Assuming this is the case, removing the -T would 
not write the TRANS.TBL files, this reducing the number of files. It 
doesn't explain the issue with the -J though.

These disks are custom RedHat 7.3 disks using kickstart. There are two 
disks in the set so I could find a way to force more files to the second 
cd. I could also rebuild the boot image using the debug version of 
syslinux. The question is do I have the stamina for it:-)

If anyone has suggestions as to what the real issue might be, I would be 
please to hear from them.

-- 
Ian Leonard

Please ignore spelling and punctuation - I did.




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